24 THE STOCK owner's ADVISER. 



operation of this law indicates the necessity of proper treat- 

 ment. If the male were allowed constant association with the 

 other sex he would be quiet and manageable. The horse and 

 mare should be allowed to rim together during the period of 

 ovulation. This can be done by selecting a field, or by making 

 a large enclosure in some out of the way place. This arrange- 

 ment would do away with attendants' fees and would be the 

 cheaper plan. By far too few horses are kept as breeders, and 

 they are taxed beyond all reason and decency. Among the in- 

 telligent breeders of Kentucky it is not uncommon for a gentle- 

 man to keep a horse of his own to serve his own mares, and 

 perhaps a few others. Sometimes a few farmers club together 

 and purchase a first-class horse. This is a move in the right 

 direction, and it is to be hoped that others will follow their 

 example. 



Xo horse should serve more than twenty-five mares during the 

 breeding season, and never oftener than every other day. The 

 progeny of a horse allowed to serve sixty or seventy mares during 

 the season cannot be sound; and if a foal is produced at all it 

 will be big-boned, loose-jointed; of flabby, uncompact muscle, 

 and with feeble constitution. A foal gotten under such circum- 

 stances cannot be expected to prove otherwise than weak and 

 feeble. A great number of such die before they attain the age 

 of one year. The intelligent breeder will not have his animals 

 begotten, born, and bred under such unphysiological conditions. 

 The laws of life and health, and tlie rules of normal develop- 

 ment, are the same in all living organisms. If we have unsound 

 germs we cannot expect a sound progeny, and where a horse is 

 allowed to serve one or two mares a day the germ is immature. 

 How frequently we see a handsome mare served by a fine horse 

 and the progeny falling far below the standard of their excel- 

 lency. It is established that conception is the mingling of cer- 

 tain elements to which both animals contribute. It is probable 

 that the seminal fluid of the horse forms the first substance of 

 the fetus, while a small particle of blood with the ovxun of the 



